The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico, gained worldwide attention on January 1, 1994, when they marched toward Mexico City against the signing of the Free Trade Agreement. North American trade (NAFTA). The free trade agreement was intended to facilitate trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico. The Zapatistas claimed that the agreement would affect the indigenous peoples of Chiapas by further widening the gap between the poor and the rich. In this article I will examine the NAFTA agreement as well as the Zapatista ideology and demands against the NAFTA agreement to see whether or not real effects occurred among the indigenous peoples of Chiapas in Mexico and throughout Mexico. The Goal of North American Free Trade The agreement aimed to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Implementation of the agreement resulted in the immediate removal of tariffs on more than half of U.S. imports from Mexico and more than a third of U.S. exports to Mexico. Ten years after the implementation of NAFTA, all tariffs from the United States and Mexico would have disappeared. The only tariffs that would remain would be those on U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico. However, these measures were to be phased out within fifteen years of the program's initial implementation. NAFTA also seeks to eliminate all non-tariff trade barriers. The ideology of the Zapatista movement, also known as Zapatismo or Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), integrates traditional Mayan practices with elements of Marxism, libertarian socialism, and anarchism. Zapatismo opposes economic globalization, arguing that it seriously and negatively affects the way of life of indigenous people. The North American F...... middle of paper...... Liberation Army (EZLN). American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). " Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. November 23, 2011. .Dellacioppa, Kara Zugman. The Bridge Called Zapatismo: Building Alternative Political Cultures in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Beyond. Lexington Books, 2009.Lowery, George Allen Collier and Elizbeth! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, California: Food First Books, 1999.Rondefeldt, David F. and Arroyo Center” in Mexico.., 1998